'F1 2013' interview: Codemasters talks Classic mode and licensing

F1 2013 launches in one month's time on October 4. As well as the usual update to drivers and rules, the biggest new feature is the introduction of Classic cars, drivers and courses from years past, including Alan Prost in the 1980 Williams, through to Michael Schumacher in the 1996 Ferrari.

We spoke to game director Paul Jeal at gamescom 2013 to discuss the work that's gone into the new Classic content, licensing issues and whether it would continue in future F1 games.

Why introduce Classic content now, why this year?"For us, it wasn't necessarily a 'why now' question. It was, now's the time when it has almost come together, but not quite over the line yet.

F1 2013 introduces Classic content.

"One of the reasons the game was announced slightly later this year, and also why the release date is slightly longer, is because it takes so long to get over the line. It's been a couple of years in the making.

"Some doors open, some shut. It's been quite difficult in terms of keeping the ball rolling as well. There are so many parties involved and ownership changes amongst teams.

"Some drivers are just pundits now, it's easy, but other ones – ice cream makers, farmers – just dropped off the face of the earth.

"It's just keeping that momentum going, so you might have a few weeks where you're hearing lots, then where we haven't heard anything for three months because [Nigel] Mansell is out on holiday for three months, as you do.

"But as it turns out, it's a good year for it, when you look at the other games that are doing retro stuff, and obviously Formula 1 itself doing the Rush movie coming out in September, that's obviously good news.

"But for us, we didn't want to just do time trial classic stuff, because that's been done before. So it was, now we've got enough toys to put out there, let's do it."

F1 2013 introduces Classic content.

You say this has been few years in the making, what kind of research goes into it? Obviously it was different when you're doing the modern-day sport - you can't really just talk to people as much as you can now, right?"In some ways, there's quite a lot of information out there because a lot of the tech specs are out there a little bit. In other ways, it's harder to get hold of certain bits and pieces.

"Certainly ownership and licensing stuff is a nightmare. Reference to someone like Williams is easy because they've got museums, so you can wander around looking at every Wililams from 1970 to all the way to modern, which is fantastic.

"Some of the team notice stuff, obviously the longer around in its form as it was in the day, was harder to source and get hold of.

"Trying to source the engine audio for these cars and actually fire up an F1 car in terms of cost, and they just break down all the time. Nowadays they're only revving to 18,000 when they used to do 20,000, it's easy.

"And the sign-off as well. Our Williams contact, our Ferrari contact, our McLaren contact - they know the brand inside out of the current stuff, but you ask them about a car that's 20 years old, they weren't working at that company. Chances are, some of them weren't even born!

"When you start to think it and get involved, it's kind of a minefield, and at times we were like, 'Are we ever going to get this off the ground?'

"Certainly in terms of trying to replicate an entire season was something that very, very early on became almost mission impossible.

"Trying to upgrade all the tracks and trying to find all the things, and you can get there with 90% of it. And what are you going to do if you can't get the 10%? You've got this half-missing season, you're going to get criticized for that.

"For us it was about legendary names, heroes of the past. That was one thing that really opened our eyes from some of the feedback; we made last year's game quicker to get into a race - so Grand Prix Mode effectively became Quick Race - but people missed racing a season as their hero.

"So that was the more crucial thing about it. It was just the cars and the fact that they handled differently. Obviously all that's amazing, it's, 'Oh, I get to race as Mansell, oh, I can be Hill, I can recreate Schumacher-Villeneuve, all these types of things. It really comes to life.

"When you first get the concept, it's a bit sort of football masters, golf masters, a little bit Goodwood, it's a bit of a mixture, stuff where you might be like, 'How does that work?' But as soon as we stuck a few of the cars together, we thought, 'Oh, this is amazing, the names there'.

"I think we've overachieved on stuff, if I'm honest. What I thought we might get together and what we managed to get together, to secure as many of the original drivers and as many of these team legends, because obviously one without the other will look a bit weird. But the two hand-in-hand is really nice and cool to do."

Did you encounter any major problems, especially when it came to licensing?"Nothing too major, I mean obviously the big disappointments that are already out there, is McLaren already have deals with other people that made things slightly difficult, and we just weren't able to resolve that in the timeframe.

"With Senna as well, there's a Brazilian PC game which has tied up his rights, which complicated things quite a lot.

"Then in terms of having one driver who's sadly no longer with us in amongst this concept of, 'If Roman Abramovich wanted to do masters F1 and he chucked loads of money in', our theme would kind of work. But then it breaks if you do various bits and pieces.

F1 2013's cover.

"We're keeping all discussions open, because we very much want this to be the first step, if we can get enough content year on year. It's just the waiting, that's always the thing.

"It's just because these guys don't check their email every day like the rest of the world, so sometimes you take silence as bad news when it's often not.

"The fact that we're eight weeks from launching and we're still not quite there on two of the drivers - it's tighter than what we would like it to be.

"It's pretty much [done], just physically getting in a signed contract back at the ranch, so to speak, so you're confident enough of it, but then trying to put the driver names – that was a big push to get as many drivers announced last week as we could.

Even the box, what names do you put on the box? That must have changed about a hundred times in the last week, because if Driver X signs, you want them on the box.

"And different territories - what about this? What about that? Germany would want Schumacher, England would want Mansell and Hill, et cetera, et cetera."

So when you're putting all of this together in the actual game, how did you feel it came out initially?"From a pure gameplay perspective, it's great because you really get to see how F1 has changed from 1980 Williams - even through the eight years up to the '88 Ferrari - the difference between those two is phenomenal.

"Then to be able to go '92, '96, '99 as well, and then obviously 2013. So from a purely player's point of view, how all the different cars handle, there are 11 classic cars across the '80s and '90s, and all of them handle differently.

"There are also slight nuanced differences between the 2013 cars now. Lotus is easier on its tyres. The Mercedes is faster on the straight line but harder on its tyres. Knowing those little bits steers your path through the career as well.

"It's been tough, I would say, on the car handling guys in particular, but they're car fanatics like the rest of us so to stay late to work on the 1988 Ferrari handling was no mean feat!

"From a gameplay point of view as well, 2013 cars handle amazingly, they're literally planes on wheels. To have all of that slowed down slightly for the early stuff, and then just to be fighting constantly between wheel spin and oversteer moments.

"I was saying to one of the chaps earlier, in a 100% classic race, in the end I literally had cramp in my foot and in my calf. You're just so different on all the pedals and trying to correct it all. It really felt like a workout.

Was it possible to have classic versus modern? Or was that a licensing issue?"No, that was a bit of a licensing minefield. Originally when we started doing some concepts internally - particularly with Ferrari because they're in the '80s and the '90s pack and the modern stuff - to see Ferrari throughout the eras as a screenshot was just amazing.

"That wasn't something we weren't allowed to market, sadly. But then, we've been able to get them to relax a little bit on things like mix and matching the tracks, for example.

"People, who are downloading the classic stuff, if they only got to race them on two, three, four tracks, it wasn't very good. You want to be able to take your 1992 Williams and race it around Silverstone.

"I know it's not exactly the same layout as it used to be - and I prefer the old layout as it was back in the day - but that was the key thing for us, that we had to make sure that we got [that] - the fact that we didn't do classic safety cars was... Like I said, we were happy with what we managed to get, but with a few little restrictions.

"One scenario where you perhaps could have done a sort of Top Gear challenge, where you start this '80s car and 30 seconds you do that, and then 20 seconds later and you go on a 2013 one and see if you can overtake anything, and you get that last corner where everyone comes around.

"It would have been amazing. I can't see that happening any time in the near future unfortunately. It's a shame. I have to try to push for that. Maybe one for next year."

Do you see the classic mode as a long-term thing?"I hope so. It's given our licensing and research teams a few sleepless nights and grey hairs for sure. Obviously, the financial side of things in terms of signing stuff outside of the licensing itself is obviously one cost, but then to licence tracks, drivers, sponsors, cars, all outside of that, means that there are some cost implications.

"But we're confident that it's going to be popular. Certainly the feedback on early videos and the viewing figures, and people talking about the game, all of that kind of thing, numbers are really quite high on that.

"Pre-order numbers are starting to pick up quite nicely now in terms of how staggered they are towards the Classic Edition, which is obviously a limited edition run. People will want to get that box set.

"Ultimately if it's successful, they'll be a lot of internal pressure to do it based on ourselves and from Codemasters anyway."

And I believe if you just have the standard edition, you can buy the Classic Edition later?"I think it's going to be two weeks, yeah. Again, it enhances the reason to want to get the Classic version, to have it as an exclusive period."

F1 2013 will be available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC from October 4 in Europe.